A note on Develop has further indications that Battlefield 3 will not be released through Steam, as speculation mounts that DICE's military shooter sequel will not appear on Valve's download service. They quote a comment from a report from financial research firm Baird based on a meeting with GameStop: "The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam," Baird says GameStop executives told them. "Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative." Thanks Computer and Video Games.

StingingVelvet wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 23:07:Again, this idea that a PC game of Battlefield's stature needs Steam is so ridiculous. Starcraft 2, dude... Starcraft 2.

That's one argument, but is has very little to support it. All I need to is ask "How many more copies would have been sold had it been available on Steam?"

You cannot deny that there are casual gamers who would have bought it on steam had a shiny advertisement for it popped up in front of them with a button to buy on loading up steam, much less on a steam sale, yet would not have gone out of their way to find Blizzard's download service. On the other hand, I can't cite any reliable numbers to suggest it might be a significant amount.

Since there's no way to answer the oiriginal question, the argument is null. Certainly it doesn't NEED it to be successful, but the real question is, would it be MORE successful if it had it?